


i heard there's pie

by hon_eyyyyyyyy



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Christmas Fluff, Fluff, How Do I Tag, M/M, Mentioned Lee Donghyuck | Haechan, Minor Lee Donghyuck | Haechan/Mark Lee, doctor!ten
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-02
Updated: 2021-01-02
Packaged: 2021-03-10 20:49:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,603
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28493412
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hon_eyyyyyyyy/pseuds/hon_eyyyyyyyy
Summary: “My chart is in your hands.” Doyoung answered, prompting Ten to roll his eyes.“Or you could humor me, since I’m here distracting you from the lack of pie.”“You’re not distracting me from shit, I’m still hungry.” familiarity was a funny thing, Ten thought. This patient would not cry over fruit. Or pie.“You know way more about me than I know about you, Doyoung.”(or: ten is on a 12hr shift on christmas day and doyoung is a hungry demanding patient)
Relationships: Kim Dongyoung | Doyoung/Chittaphon Leechaiyapornkul | Ten
Comments: 6
Kudos: 55





	i heard there's pie

**Author's Note:**

> i wrote this in one sitting, inspired by something unfortunately i don't remember anymore + the boss 100mi views commemorative video that youtube recommended to me recently even though i'd already seen it fifty three times before.  
> i only reread it once, it's not betaed so PLEASE forgive any mistakes that might exist (i'm sure there are plenty). i know nothing about medicine but the stuff i see on tv, so maybe some inconsistencies there too.

When Ten was choosing what to do with his life, he didn’t really account for the fact that he would have to work on Christmases or New Years. Sometimes he would have a say on the matter, but more often than not the hospital administration would decide which doctors would work the holidays’ shifts. To be quite honest, he didn’t mind.

His family was in another country and he’d been gone long enough, with a schedule hectic enough, that he’d visit them whenever he could and they would do the same, and that was that. Most of his friends weren’t locals either, but they had normal nine to five jobs that would allow them to travel on predictable dates. So yeah, Ten didn’t mind spending his Christmas mending broken bones on the ER like it was any other normal day. It grounded him, especially when the option would be sitting by himself at home, sipping wine and feeling sorry for his lonely self.

Contrary to popular belief, the ER was not particularly hectic during the holidays, instead an honest to God normal day for everyone. People were stupid on a daily basis and having something written on the calendar didn’t change that. It was more seasonal injuries than holiday-y injuries.

“Doc, we have pie.”

Ten was having a twenty minute break and most of the staff knew not to bother him while he was clearly doing nothing, but Mark, being the most considerate being on Earth, always put food higher on his list of priorities than leaving Ten be by the windows, spacing out while looking at the snowfall. Sometimes he would walk by and leave coffee for him, saying nothing; other times, cookies or a pb&j sandwich. Ten could not for the life of him understand why Mark was so kind to him when the majority of the staff scurried away in his presence, but Ten adored Mark, and they were friends now, so he wouldn’t ask.

“Oh, I don’t think uh- I’m not sure the rest of the nurses would be comfortable with me there. Remember what happened last week.” he said, trying to feign mild indifference.

The last time he was eating with the nurses he accidentally got himself into an argument about fruit, of all things! The younger cute nurse got offended and legitimately cried and Ten wanted the floor to swallow him whole. He knew he was charming and witty, but Ten often forgot his brand of sarcasm could be harsh.

“Ah, everyone forgot about that already.” Mark said, with a dismissive hand waving between them. One look from Ten and he backtracked. “Ok, so maybe not forgotten, but they don’t mind, Ten.”

“You’re sweet.” Ten said, because Mark was and because he knew it would make Mark blush. “Now, pie.”

Mark was so sweet that Ten knew he was prepared for his rebuttal. Of course Mark would already have a piece of pie with him, so he gave it to Ten and made small talk while he ate. They were friends solely because Mark was too easy going for his own good. Once, when Ten decided to drink his brains out after a shift, Mark insisted he’d go with him and Ten ended up drunk, yes, but also third wheeling Mark and his fiancée, Donghyuck, which Ten thought was endearingly similar to him in terms of personality, only less jaded. They took care of him and took him home, and after that night Ten decided he’d keep Mark and Donghyuck.

“We have five minutes left.” Ten said, getting up.

“I’m not on a break, Ten, I was just hiding from the 403 patient.”

“You were… hiding?” Ten slow blinked, as if to say _excuse me?_ “And you’re telling this to the doctor you directly respond to?” _Don’t be dense_ , Mark’s look told him.

“The dude is _demanding_. Like, I get it, the pillow is not great, and the lights are either too strong or nonexistent, and the food is- point is, this is not a hotel.”

“I didn’t know your patience could run out.” Ten said, returning the plate to Mark while they walked back to their floor. Mark shrugged.

“It’s rare. But, uh, he’s been here for almost three days and in only half a shift he already called me seven times. Who does that?”

“Someone in pain?”

“You’d think he has like, cancer or something.”

“Doesn’t he?” Ten asked, which made Mark scoff.

“A clean fracture on his leg, that’s all.”

“Mark, that actually hurts, what the fuck.” and when both of them laughed, Ten nudged Mark’s shoulder. “Page me and I’ll put him in his place. You know, be mean and use the tone that makes nurses cry.”

“You are like an adolescent cat, you are not mean.” Mark scoffed, like he was the one offended.

“That’s oddly specific.”

“Yeah, I have a friend that has a lot of cats, so I’m familiar. But for real, the nurses will come around, it’s just that this rotation hasn’t got used to you yet.”

Ten knew that was bullshit because he had already worked with plenty of the nurses from this shift before. He was arrogant and maybe the fact that he was younger than most physicians contributed to coming out as an overachiever prick. He was hardly much older than Mark, but most of the nurses were experienced and had been there for a lot more time than him, who hadn’t had a year on the job yet.

“Alright. But I’m serious, page me. Nothing big has happened tonight, no exciting accidents or cute firefighters showing up.”

“Ten, you know we are not on Grey’s Anatomy?” Mark asked, drooly.

“I’m going take back the offer, good luck with Mr. Grumpy.”

“No, no, I’ll page you. Might as well use nepotism now.”

When Mark walked away, Ten was just happy to be considered family by someone other than his college friends in this lonely city.

_

“Good evening, sir.” Ten said, entering after knocking lightly on the door of room 403. “I’m doctor Lee.”

Ten wasn’t expecting the person staring at him in the hospital bed to be as young as he was. He was expecting a grumpy middle aged white man, but not a young cute asian one. He should’ve checked the chart, because the name Kim Doyoung staring back at him now would’ve given it away.

“I called for the nurse?” the man said, not at all fazed by Ten.

“Yes, the nurse is busy right now and I am not.” with a small huh in acknowledgement, the patient - Doyoung, the name, yes - kept looking at Ten. “So, is there anything wrong? Any pain or discomfort?”

“Yeah. Yeah, I’m- I’m hungry.”

Doyoung’s face was too serious and earnest for it to be a joke, so Ten held his laugh. Mark was a sweetheart, but he could see someone treating him like a maid getting to him. He was entirely too proud of saving lives and helping humanity, which Ten found to be a better reason than his to be working with people’s health. Ten was just fascinated by bones, muscle and movement.

“We are not a hotel, Mr. Kim, no room service. But just like a hotel, we have a designated time slot for when collective meals are served, so I’m afraid you’re going to have to wait.”

It was - Ten checked his watch - four twenty in the morning. At least three hours of waiting for Kim Doyoung.

“I heard there’s pie, so I’d like some.” Doyoung smiled at Ten, obviously trying at some persuasion.

“Did you hear it from nurse Lee?” Ten asked, sitting at the other side of the room, making himself comfortable. The emergency room was as silent as a graveyard, something that usually precedes hours of utter chaos. But Ten would worry about that later.

“How many koreans are there in this hospital?” Doyoung retorted, narrowing his eyes at Ten.

“Not that many. I’m not.” Ten answered, smiling sweetly.

“You’re not what?”

“Korean. Mark is, but Lee is essentially my american name.”

“What is your actual name?”

“Leechaiyapornkul.”

“Oh, that’s...” Doyoung seemed to be thinking, so Ten decided to help.

“Thai. That’s a Thai name.” Doyoung was just surprised, but didn’t laugh, the most common reaction to Ten’s mouthful of a name. Ten liked that. “So tell me, was it Mark? Because if it was, he wasn’t lying at the time, but the pie now is long gone.”

“Seriously? Am I going to be stuck here forever without real food?”

“Hey, the hospital’s food is good!” and it really was. Ten shouldn’t eat it for free, but one of the people responsible for the hospital food supply took a liking to him after Ten treated a burn on his arm. Kun wasn’t as sweet as Mark, but was just as patient and caring.

“But today’s Christmas, Doctor.”

Ten had forgotten. Mark hadn’t mentioned Christmas and Ten took the pie without thinking much of it, but now he could see it for what it was: Mark’s attempt to cheer Ten up. It wasn’t like he was moping around or anything, and he had thought about it earlier when he arrived at the hospital, but work distracted him. He left his phone in the locker, his parents and sister well aware of the fact that he wouldn’t pick up at work.

“Did you not know?”

“No, I did, I just forgot.” Ten answered absentmindedly.

“Who forgets Christmas when the entire world is using red, white and golden with fake snowflakes on top?” Ten could recognize a Christmas anti when he saw one, and that was clearly Doyoung.

Although he wasn’t one himself, he got it. Christmas decorations looked corny to him as well, and he would never understand tropical countries’ fascination with something as inconvenient as snow.

“Ok, Grinch.” Ten said, which made Doyoung smile a little, so he counted that as a win. “My family still lives in Thailand and my friends are not in the city. I’ve been working and bones distract me.”

“You weren’t here when I was admitted.”

“No, we have 48 hours in between shifts. What happened to you?” Ten asked. He checked his pager and saw nothing. Maybe this calm shift was a Christmas present in disguise.

“My chart is in your hands.” Doyoung answered, prompting Ten to roll his eyes.

“Or you could humor me, since I’m here distracting you from the lack of pie.”

“You’re not distracting me from shit, I’m still hungry.” familiarity was a funny thing, Ten thought. This patient would not cry over fruit. Or pie.

“You know way more about me than I know about you, Doyoung.”

“Well, doctor, you know my first name and I don’t know yours, so maybe not.”  
“Ten.” Ten supplied, because Doyoung had a point. They had been talking for a while now and nothing about this interaction suggested Doyoung would respect titles for much longer. “And before you ask, yes, it’s short for something. Now, what happened to your leg?”

“Someone forgot to salt my university’s stairs. I fell. Nothing exciting.”

Ten had spent countless hours with patients that fell for the very same reason. Every winter was the same, and, even though Ten knew each season brought its own preferred injuries, winter was his busiest time of the year.

“I don’t imagine breaking a leg to be exciting.”

“Not for me, but you did say you get distracted by bones.”

“So you’re a student?”

“I’m a TA. A student too, I suppose, but more of a researcher? These days I think I’m just drowning in papers.” Doyoung was getting more distracted by the second, and Ten liked his voice way too much to mind the conversation. He was enjoying it? Did he ever stay and make small talk with a patient?

“About what?”

“Music theory. I majored in mathematics, but my minor was music, and when I went to grad school for music I sort of implemented some of the math stuff in my research. They liked it enough that I’m still here, I guess.”

“My minor was dance.” Ten remarked, more to himself than to Doyoung.

“Do you still dance?” Doyoung asked. Ten shook his head.

It had been years since he last intentely moved to a song, choreographed something. He loved it, but his parents weren’t paying for an international education for him to become an artist. He knows now that he could’ve done it, make it a career and even give his family money like he does now, but at the time it seemed like a pipe dream.

“Do you have videos?” Doyoung looked at Ten expectantly.

“Absolutely not. No. My phone isn’t even here, but I wouldn’t show it to you.”

“I assume you weren’t very good at it, then.”

“That’s an awful bait if I’ve ever seen one.” Ten pointed out, because he could see Doyoung’s game from miles away. “I was a great dancer. But, you know, first generation immigrant child. But maybe if you play something for me I’ll try a few moves. Preferably ones that wouldn’t break my hip now that I’m old.”

“That’s a bait too.” Doyoung said. They smiled at each other. “I play a few string instruments, but I’m not excellent in any of them. I’ll show you after you get me food.”

Narrowing his eyes at Doyoung, Ten felt himself caving. The man had such a beautiful face. Ten was often called handsome, but Doyoung had a different type of beauty entirely. He was bigger than Ten, his black hair a little wavy, his eyes angled at the edge, dark and shiny, and Ten noticed that while he had a cute gummy smile, he also gave a mean stink eye. Mark had probably reached his quota of cunniness with Ten and Donghyuck, no space left for pretty and witty patient Kim.

“You can get food yourself on your phone, and I’ll bring it here. Just make sure it’s delivered on entrance D or some other doctor will eat it.” Doyoung positively beamed at him.

“Shouldn’t you be working right now?”

“Oh my God, the moment I cave you want to show me the door!” Ten faked indignance, while getting up to yes, go back to work. Doyoung had the decency to look a little bit chastised.

“No, that’s not it. I-uh, liked talking to you. The other doctors were annoying and I am just so _tired_ of being here, stuck in this fucking bed, knowing I’ll be stuck on my own bed for ages when I get back home, that I was the annoying one to the nurses and then you showed up. It definitely helps that you’re cute. I mean, I liked talking, the conversation, not just because I think you’re a pretty face and-”

“You’re rambling.” Ten interrupted, amused. Doyoung was even cuter blushing. “Thank you. I think you’re cute too.”

“Of course that’s what you focused on.”

“Oh, the nurses don’t like me either, so I’ll accept you making their lives difficult as my petty revenge.”

“What did you do to them?” Now Doyoung was the one amused. Leaning against the door, Ten rolled his eyes. “Will I see you later?”

None of this was particularly ethical on Ten’s part, but neither was Doyoung calling him cute, so he decided to ignore that fact somewhere in the first few minutes of conversation. He wanted to see Doyoung later. Donghyuck would _so_ get a kick out of his predicament.

“Do you want to?”

“I wouldn’t have asked if I didn’t. I can order the pie closer to your real break.”

“So we can have a date, Doyoung?” Ten liked to see Doyoung blush. He noticed that didn’t stop the man from saying what he wanted, but it gave away that he was more affected than he wanted to seem.

“I was going to tell you to invite Mark Lee too, I like him. But I like that idea better. Can it be a date?” Ten was now feeling like he was the one blushing, confirmed by the glint in Doyoung’s eye, clearly getting a kick out of it.

“Yeah. It can.”

With a wave and a smile, Ten left the room.

_

As it turns out, true to ER fashion, the calm preceded the storm. Minutes after Ten left Doyoung’s room they were notified of an accident involving five cars and a bus, meaning a whole lot of work for him. By the time his shift should be done, there were still people needing his care and he was on autopilot, getting free only two and a half hours later than the actual time he should’ve been on his way home.

He saw Mark in passing, just as busy as him. The date with Doyoung was on the back of his mind the entire time, but he didn’t have a spare second to tell Doyoung, or ask someone to tell him, that he would be late. The man was probably thinking he was stood up. Ten took a shower, changed in the locker room, and headed to a toy store on the other side of the street.

Ten didn’t know much about Doyoung at all, but looking back at their conversation he managed to think of something. He bought sharpies, a kid ukelele and a teddy bunny keychain. He thought it was cute. When Ten knocked on the door, Doyoung was staring out the window at the extremely white scenery. His room had a view to the hospital back patio, which was clear of people and full of leafless trees. He looked at Ten, realization followed by surprise. He gave Ten a small smile.

“Hey.”

“Hi, Ten.” he sounded a bit far away, tired. Ten reminded himself that sleeping in a hospital was hard for some people even with the meds. Too many noises and too much movement.

“I’m sorry about earlier I was-”

“Working. I figured. I heard about the accident a few hours ago.” Ten was relieved to hear that.

“I got busy and couldn’t come, I’m sorry.”

“It wasn’t your fault, stop saying sorry. And it’s not like I was going anywhere.” Doyoung said, waving at the general direction of his leg.

Ten laughed, Doyoung smiled. He sat by the bed and they stayed in comfortable silence for a couple of minutes. Ten stared, and Doyoung noticed, but kept his gaze outside. Doyoung really had a perfect, beautiful face.

“You should go home, you must be tired.”

“Dead on my feet. But I’m used to it by now. Also I try not to sleep during the day after night shifts in what’s obviously a failed attempt to have a normal person’s sleep schedule.” Ten made himself more comfortable on the chair. Doyoung looked about to argue, but Ten saw the fight leave him when he saw the bag beside Ten’s chair.

“What’s that? Are we eating?”

“I’m sure you ate not that long ago, so no. I have-” a second passed where Ten retought his decision to buy the presents because, really, would Doyoung think Ten was too much? That happened to him before many, many times. “Here. It’s a gift.”

“A gift?” Doyoung’s voice was so small that Ten only heard it because he was closer now.

“The sharpies are for the plaster. Your friends can sign it when they come back. I can draw. If you want to, of course. And you said you play string instruments and I wasn’t all that sure what you play exactly, but I went by the obvious. I couldn’t bring the real thing because it’s not allowed, but we bring toys in all the time.” Ten explained.

Doyoung looked like he was about to cry. A little stunned and maybe happy?, but Ten still wasn’t sure. He was playing with the strings of the small ukelele as if he could tune it like a real instrument. Ten wanted to record him.

“And the bunny?”

“Ah, I just thought it was cute. Like you.”

“Oh.”

When Doyoung smiled at Ten, he felt like a ray of sunshine had finally breached the layers of clouds that had been plaguing them for days. His heart was warm and he couldn’t help but smile back. Doyoung reached out and moved Ten’s hair behind his ear. It was longer now, and he really should get a haircut soon, but he was into this new style. Doyoung seemed to be into it too, so there was that.

“Thank you, Ten.”

“You’re welcome, Doyoung. Merry Christmas.”

“Merry Christmas, Doctor Lee.”

Ten was sleepy, and even though he knew Doyoung still had a few more days until he went home and they could meet later, Ten didn’t want to leave. He wanted to feel the warmth of Doyoung’s hand playing with his hair while he rested his head on the hospital bed, he wanted to hear his voice, sweet and playful, talking back and forth with him, the witty remarks and the smooth humming Doyoung did while playing with the dummy ukelele.

Ten decided he wasn’t going to leave, not now. Maybe this was the first Christmas in almost a decade he could feel the spirit, the subtle magic of it, even if it was just a day humanity decided to get together and celebrate that togetherness. Because now he had company. Someone as indifferent to the date as he was, except maybe for the food it provides. Ten should get on that for their next date.  
He raised his head and got the sharpies.

“So, what do you want me to draw?”

“A bunny.”

**Author's Note:**

> it's been literally ten years since i wrote fanfiction (i'm not that old, i was just a baby before) so this is scary af for me, but i wrote it, i like it, so here it is. doten is not a ship i usually read, but i liked writing it so much, i love both of these men.
> 
> if you got to this point, thank you so much <3


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